if you Go

It’s been 25 years since Paul Weller released his first-ever solo album, giving the British music icon his own, unvarnished voice in a music world he’d already inhabited for many years with The Jam and Style Council.

Since then Weller has released 13 studio albums, along with an assortment of EPs and live sets that allowed him to maintain a prolific profile and a reputation for hard work both in the studio and on the road. His latest release, “A Kind of Revolution,” came out in May featuring guest appearances by Boy George, P.P. Arnold, Madeline Bell and Robert Wyatt and debuted at No. 5 on the U.K. album charts...

• This year Weller, 59, is celebrating both the 40th anniversary of the first Jam album as well as the 25th anniversary of his first solo effort. “It doesn’t feel that long ‘cause it’s gone so quickly,” Weller says. “Obviously when I look back on it, yeah, that’s a long time. I would hope I’ve changed in that time; It would be pretty sad if I hadn’t. The only thing that’s the same is I’m still sitting in dressing rooms waiting to go on stage or in studios trying to write a song. That hasn’t changed too much in 40 years. But me as a person, I’ve changed considerably -- hopefully, anyway. It’s nice to feel there’s been some sort of progress.”

• Weller has adopted a working pattern of or new albums that begin with material from the previous album. So for “A Kind Of Revolution,” he says that “there were a couple of songs that were, I won’t say left over from (2015’s) ‘Saturns Pattern’ but songs towards the end of making the last record that I came up with and we demoed but didn’t finish at the time. So they kind of act as a sort of cornerstone for the next record I suppose. You try to find at least one or two song that you feel really set the kind of standard or benchmark for the rest of it, that you have to match or surpass, and then the rest of it was done fairly quickly.”

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• Weller has long been politically minded and socially conscious in his music, and while he’s “disappointed” by the Trump presidency in America he says that “A Kind Of Revolution,” despite its title, is not a political treatise of any kind. “It’s a bit of a sad time for people,” he says. “I don’t think there’s any world leaders I’d put any faith into. There doesn’t seem to be any kind of united peace movement right now, just a world of extremes. It’s quite a scary time, really. I don’t think it makes me want to write any political songs, though. I don’t think the answer’s in politics or religion. The answer is inside people themselves, really, which is a much bigger question. It’s not one person who’s going to lead us into the light. It’s going to have to come from us, so who knows what will happen or not.”